Layla on the Move

Little Miss Layla Grace is breaking my heart a little how quickly she's growing already. She's 11 weeks and already developing more quickly than her siblings did. This mama doesn't think it's fair. not. fair. at. all. She's super strong; it's a challenge to give her a bath because I can't get her to sit down easily since all she wants to do it stand. She's started to smile all the time, which just makes her features seem so mature and she's no longer my newborn. ((sob!))

I took the kids to Andrea's today and Layla was feeling like a showoff - I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with her doting aunt ohhhing and ahhhhing over every little thing she did. I held her weight and wanted to see if she wanted to try bouncing and jumping but she was more interested in walking. Why wouldn't she at three months??

NeRdY tHiRtY

Justin turned thirty last week and it was really important to me to throw him a birthday party that would make him feel as loved and appreciated as he is by so many. Since his birthday is so close to Halloween, and he's an engineer that loves over-explaining, I decided to have some fun with the theme and threw a "Nerdy Thirty" party for him. Everyone was encouraged to come dressed as a nerd and for the most part, people really got into it and came dressed the part! 

I started planning the party a few months ago since I knew it'd be a little hectic to take on a big party so close after having a baby and I was really pleased with how everything turned out. I had a lot of help from his mom and was able to remain pretty stress-free until the days immediately leading up to it. Justin's mom made a ginormous cupcake for the centerpiece of the dessert table and the plan was to stencil in a bunch of math symbols until we found this ridiculously huge Smarties that fit with the theme perfectly! The remainder of the cupcakes had Nerds or a "30" graphic I made - all in all I think it looked really sharp and even though it was cupcakes, still masculine.

I borrowed a couple ideas I saw online as birthday cards and made them my own by blowing them up and hanging on the walls so you couldn't miss the nerd theme no matter where you were. I also had my brother send me a math equation that equaled 30 and I scribbled it repeatedly on our front door Goodwill Hunting style and a couple other places throughout the house (convenient having a high school math teacher at your beckon call!). Still, even after Justin tried to explain what all the symbols were, I have no clue. I have to admit, planning this party (especially the decorations) made me feel a little stupid since I often didn't understand the joke or know if it was funny until Justin started laughing.

Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of the pictures of the tables for appetizers or the chili bar. I'm not sure if I was the biggest fan of the chili bar, but it's fine if I was because it was a cold autumn night and it was delicious. We had three different types of chili (beans, no beans and white chicken chili) with all the condiments available (cheese, sour cream, onions, cornbread and Fritos). But by the time people were over and it was time to set the food out, my camera was borrowed for our mock photo booth (and I was a little too tipsy after a half hour to remember to snag it back) but it all went with our color scheme and looked really cool.

Ohhhh the photo booth. That ended up being a lot of fun and everyone checked egos at the door and were really goofy and had a good time - which thrilled me because I was a little nervous about it. Justin had some old sheets from college that had a dark blue and light blue checker pattern that reminded me of graph paper so I stretched it out, stapled it to a wooden frame and we hung it on the wall in the kitchen so when people stood with it and a hollow picture frame it made for some fun pictures!

Ugh, I also missed a full-length photo of Justin and I in our "costumes". He was in a NASA lab coat and a shirt with the pi sign on it with high-water jeans, white socks and dress shoes. It was hilarious, and oddly not that different from his everyday... haha! I had a graphic t-shirt with suspenders, pigtails, thick glasses with tape, a pleated skirt, white knee high socks and Chuck Ts. 

Austin was a bit of a distraction as I was trying to write the math equation on the door:

Nerd Alert

Wordless Wednesday

more pictures to come from Justin's Nerdy Thirty party!